Development of palliative care in Lebanon. Obstacles and opportunities.

Palliative care focuses on relieving suffering in patients with serious illness. Patients who receive palliative care have better control of distressing symptoms, are less likely to suffer from depression and have a better quality of life. Although palliative care has become an integral component of health care systems in many developed countries it has yet to be established in most developing countries. In Lebanon, Palliative care was only recently recognized as a specialty and there are not enough palliative care providers to cover the needs of the population. This article describes the opportunities and barriers to the development of palliative care in the Lebanese context.